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Comics-wise, France's Metal Hurlantand the pre-superhero American tradition (Weird, Eerie) provided his inspiration. During this remarkably long gestation period - partly the result of missing a launch deadline, partly Sanders apprehending Mills was cooking up "something special" - a hiccup occurred when a public outcry followed not long after the February '76 launch of Mills's revolutionarily gory and anti-authority Action. That October, Action was briefly taken off the stands to be cleaned up. "The disastrous press obviously had an effect on 2000 AD and stories that were originally much tougher and much harder suddenly had to be toned down," says Mills. Nonetheless, 2000 AD would remain an edgy concoction: "Action had very much a street consciousness and there's a spillover of that into 2000 AD." Additionally, "You wrote a character with some humanity in, it would bomb. You wrote a character who was totally brutal and totally ruthless, the readers would love it. John Wagner and I had both observed this trend in reader taste, so what you might call a traditional hero just didn't cut it." He happily found that the nature of the new comic gave him something of a get-out from higher-ups' disapproval: the sci-fi backdrops served to make the violence and harsh ambience seem less 'real'. An indication of just how much thought went into 2000 AD is Mills's work on the comic's look. He admired the high standards of Spaniards like Carlos Ezquerra and Italians like Massimo Belardinelli. However, though he commissioned Continental artists, he also felt them to be a little dull compared to technically inferior British ones. His solution was to get the best ofboth worlds by asking Youth Group Art Department worker Doug Church to "layout the pages in a dynamic way. It really grabbed your attention." Despite this thoughtfulness and innovation, Mills - perhaps surprisingly considering his enfant terrible reputation - was very aware of the responsibility he owed IPC. Asked ifhe wanted British comics to be as edgy and modern as Marvel and DC, he says, "We saw it in a different way. The audience we were looking for was newsstand readers, not fans at aIL Marvel and DC had a newsstand audience but it was relatively smalL" 'Programme' (later just 'Prog') I of what was billed as 'The Galaxy's Greatest Comic' appeared in the third week of February 1977 as 2000 AD, a title that had been amended from AD 2000. Though not yet perfect, the spirit and the class that would ensure that it would still be around come the actual year 2000 were very noticeably present in the 'Thrills' of that first issue; with stories about a no-nonsense lorry driver single-handedly taking on thinly disguised Russian hordes with nothing but his trusty shotgun (Invasion.0, people going back in time to hunt dinosaurs for their meat (Flesh), a blood-drenched future sport (Harlem Heroes) and a character who superficially resembled TV's Six Million DoIIar Man but had none of his warmth or all-American values (M.A.C.H. 1), it was obvious that this was something almost unprecedentedly edgy and postmodern in British comics. The makeover of the Eagle's legendary Dan Dare for a less deferential age might not have worked as well as had been hoped but when 'New Thrill' Judge Dredd - pitiless lawman of 22nd Century Mega-City One - made his debut in Programme 2, the comic's immortality was virtually sealed. = 092 I SciFiNow 0 TRIVIATHE MillENNIUM ISSUE WAS BillED AS PROG 2000, EVENTHOUGH ITSHOULD ACTUAllY HAVEBEENPROG 1174. ~",~iFiNow ',.) COMPLETE GUIOE-n /~OOOAD '---- In the spring of '77, Mills passed on the editor's reins to Kelvin Gosnell, and concentrated on being the comic's most consistently inventive contributor of stories. Steve MacManus succeeded Gosnell in the job in 1978. As the years passed it became clear that 2000 AD was going to rise above being merely a device to ride the supposedly short-lived sci-fi wave and become one of those rare titles that was an institution. Part of the reason for this was its freshness. Though the high-tech ambience of a sci-fi-oriented publication couldn't help but make it feel more relevanUhan the tales of World War II derring-do that still proliferated in its rivals, 2000 AD was genuinely with-it, whether this be illustrated by the creator credits it introduced before the first year was out, its wide streak of satire and gallows humour, the corporate nose-tweaking that led to Green Giant suing it over its irreverent use of their sweetcorn icon, or the enthusiasm to embrace areas previously disdained by comics in Britain. The latter was epitomised by the decision to obtain the rights to adapt Harry Harrison's adult sci-fi novel The Stainless Steel Rat, and by 'The Cursed Earth', one of many Judge Dredd multi- part epics, the type of whicl} were antithetical'to British coWic publishers' instincts to wrii~ up stories in af~.w issues at most. The 1985 appearance of the monthly Best Of2000 AD magazine marked the poin..t at wh.ich'it was effectively < I '.. acknowledge.dthat the publication had been going lon~; enoug[{, to span two g~ijerations o~comics.readers. The following year sa'Yt9-~ publicatiqn of 2000 AD Dice Man, a role-playing bimonthly. Thogghit lasted only fiv;eissues, this spin-off of ~tJ1emain title was the first stirrings of territory expansion. The appearance the year after that of the fi~t cowputer games bas:ed On2000 AD characters were the first steps toward$ a 2000 AP PleSepce i~more than one media; :gowever, a very un~]r~ady" perioq laid ahead forthe cop;tic, otJ.ethat sa'Y it lurch tl1rough financial, staff, ownership and identity crises. i Ifwas an~nprecedentedexercise in British c.omic~ irl1?8? that signalled that there was sowething profoundly differ,eht aboht I 2000 AD,. as reprints of the comic started appearing in AmeriG~. ';:" I . ...d:" . 094 ISdFiNow The final confirmation that British comics (or at least 2000 AD) was no longer the poor relation of the Yanks came in 1990 when DC paid the Brits the ultimate accolade by agreeing to a team-up of dark avengers Batman and Dredd in Judgment On Gotham. By then, British artists and writers were being headhunted. This storming of American shores had been effected without compromise of the piss-taking, lateral-minded 2000 AD template. 2000 AD became to Marvel, DC, and the rest of the US comics scene what The Beatles were to rock 'n' roll: the British rejuvenation of an art form hitherto considered quintessentially American. However, as the US began to recognise the creative talent across the Atlantic Ocean and promise it respect and remuneration not on offer from UK employers, it inflicted a haemorrhage of contributors that included 2000 ADs founding fathers. By the first two months of 1989, half the comic was taken up with Daily Star Dredd strip reprints, cheesy Tharg's Future Shocks and one-offs. David Bishop, who was editor of 2000 AD from late 1995 to mid-2000 and wrote a book-length history of the comic, Thrill-Power Overload, says, "You've still got some great Dredd stories coming through and you have got other people like Fete Milligan writing Bad Company, but outside of a few shining lights, the golden age is over by 1986." Then came publisher upheavals. The era when pictures of IFC's King's Reach Tower would appear in 2000 AD adjacent to the claim that it was Tharg's disguised spaceship came to an end in July 1987 when tycoon Robert Maxwell bought 2000 AD, publishing it under the name Fleetway. Bishop reveals, "The 2000 AD group itself was making good money," but IFC was embarrassed by publishing "kid's stuff". No sooner had the staff got used to Maxwell than Fleetway was bought by Gutenberghus (renamed Egmont) in 1991. The talent haemorrhage had at least been stemmed around summer '89 with the arrival of publishing director Jon Davidge from the more honourable world of book publishing. He arranged proper contracts involving original creator acknowledgement and royalties. Gradually, the comic began to find its feet again. Some of the old guard started coming back while new talents who'd had to learn on the job began blossoming. John Wagner found his mojo again. Despite his original disputes with IFC, Wagner had remained Judge Dredds main scriptwriter but he had seemed a little lost after his ten-year collaboration with Alan Grant came to an end. Now, SciFiNowI 095 he began turning in superb Dredd stories like 'The Dead Man' and 'Necropolis', as well as the moving Chopper tale 'Song Of The Surfer'. Meanwhile, 'Horned God' was a stunning new instalment in the S&S Slaine saga by Mills and Bisley. In the early Nineties, a whole new generation of talent started coming through, including the likes of Garth Ennis, Mark Millar and John McCrea. By now, these creative talents were aiming at a market different to the 7-11s Pat Mills had originally tried to wrest "8p earth money" from each week. "It had crept up to 11-16 by the mid-Eighties," Bishop estimates. "Once you get to Watchmen and Dark Knight and things like that, the editorial team very obviously aspired to that sort oflevel of maturity in their stories, and so did the creators. Everybody wanted to be writing graphic novels. They didn't want to be writing kids' comics in little five-page blocks." When Richard Burton took over as editor from MacManus in 1987, he was determined to do something about the production values, which lagged behind those of the Americans.